Art replaces emptiness along Main Street in Stroudsburg

What was once a vacant, overgrown lot on the 600 block of Main Street in Stroudsburg is now a space filled with 18 colorful "buildings" created by local artists.

CHRISTINA TATU

What was once a vacant, overgrown lot on the 600 block of Main Street in Stroudsburg is now a space filled with 18 colorful "buildings" created by local artists.

The lot has been empty since a November 2006 fire destroyed three businesses there.

On Saturday, more than 20 local artists met to finish the 18 panels that now fill the void.

"It's about celebrating art and having something better to look at in that space," said Richard Berkowitz, executive director of the Sherman Theater.

Each of the four-by-eight-foot panels was painted with its own building. There were no guidelines for the paintings, just that they had to each represent a different building on Main Street, Berkowitz said.

"If you look at the panels, there are 18 different interpretations of art. Some are very literal, some are more whimsical and creative," he said.

The project was the idea of the Living Room Arts Committee. The Living Room, which is part of the Sherman Theater, is a nonprofit art space that features live music, art shows, open mic nights, comedy acts and dinners, among other events.

"This is just a continuation of what we started nine years ago, giving artists opportunities and trying to promote our downtown," Berkowitz said, referring to the Sherman.

The majority of the materials for the project were donated. Most of the artists had the panels for about a month prior to the installation.

On Saturday, the artists spent about five hours painting the finishing touches on the newly installed panels as onlookers gathered.

There were 21 main artists involved in the project, though some of them had multiple helpers. At least one panel was being worked on by five different artists, Berkowitz said.

The artists include those who are part of the Living Room Committee and other local artists from the area.

Eventually the vacant lot could be turned into a combination of retail, commercial and residential space. In 2012, developer Daniel Luzon and three partners proposed a five-story mixed-use structure for the vacant lot.

They hope to eventually build a combined retail space on the ground floor with 10 small stores of about 500 to 1,000 square feet each.